On NERC’s new meter bypass directive
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, (NERC) on December 6, approved an order reviewing penalties for electricity customers involved in unauthorised access to electricity supply by tampering and meter bypass.
The review according the Commission was undertaken following several complaints from DISCOs on the growing trend of customers trying to short change them. According to a circular entitled, “Order on unauthorised access, meter tampering and by-pass order no: NERC/REG/41/2017, and signed by Sanusi Garba, vice chairman of NERC, and Dafe Akpeneye, commissioner, legal, licensing & Compliance, directed DisCos to disconnect unauthorised to distribution network.
According to the directive, any single phase residential customer that gains unauthorised access to electricity by tampering or meter bypass shall be reconnected upon payment of the reconnection costs of N50,000 initial and N75,000 for subsequent incidents.
For three phase residential customers, violators of this order are expected to pay N100,000 for initial incident and fine of N150,000 for subsequent incidents, while single phase commercial would pay N50,000 and N75,000, as well as three phase commercial fine of N100,000 and N100,000 respectively.
“The initial incident of unauthorised access to electricity by tampering or bypassing an Maximum Demand, (MD) meter shall attract a reconnection cost of 300 percent of the last authorised recorded monthly consumption of the customer. Subsequent incidents of unauthorised access to electricity by tampering or bypassing an MD meter shall attract a reconnection cost of 450 percent of the last authorised recorded monthly consumption of the customer,” states the directive.
“The Commission has received complaints from DISCOs and has also observed an increase in the incidents of unauthorised access to electricity and meter bypass by customers.” “A customer that gains access to electricity by tampering or meter bypass shall in addition to paying for the reconnection costs and administrative charges stated above be liable to pay for the loss of revenue by the DISCOs for the unauthorised consumption by paying back-bills.
“DISCOs are authorised to back-bill customers who gain unauthorised access to electricity at the prevailing tariff of the customer for the established period of the unauthorised access. All DISCOs shall file reports on all cases of unauthorised access with the Commission on a monthly basis.”
“The conditions for reconnecting unauthorised connections to the distribution network are provided for Regulation 12 (1)(c) of CDPES and these conditions include, Customers’ formalisation of electricity supply arrangements to the satisfaction of the DISCOs, payment of approved reconnection costs to the DISCOs or entering into an agreement for the payment of reconnection costs.
Nigeria is not only where power theft is prevalent. In India, the problem cost the economy over $10billion a year. Some of the strategies currently employed are a mix of persuasion and punitive measures.
Slum dwellers steal electricity and refuse to pay their bills in India’s suburbs. Tata Power officials can’t go into these communities without being chased by mobs—and sometimes beaten, tied up, urinated on, even murdered. Therefore the company hired women living in the 223 slums it serves in the northern and northwest parts of the country.
But electricity providers are compelled to improve service. India plans to fine electricity distributors from April 2019 for power cuts deemed avoidable and to make it mandatory for the companies to install prepaid or smart meters to prevent electricity theft according to the country’s power minister.
India, a country of 1.3 billion people where a quarter of households have no electricity supply compelling the government to launch a $2.3 billion project in September to provide the whole population with power by the end of 2018. Distributors would be fined if they cut power to customers unless the shutdown was caused by factors such as the weather or a disaster that was beyond a company’s control.
NERC, while within its purview to enact rules for the sector needs to, with the same fervour charge the DISCOs to improve their service. It is already an aberration that customers are being compelled to purchase prepaid meters in a weird interpretation of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPSRA). Analysts also say an electricity law would be more effective.
ISAAC ANYAOGU